This invention relates to a media gateway and more particularly to a gateway for use in an electronic communications recording system.
Electronic communications recording systems are known and are typically used for surveillance by intelligence services and law enforcement agencies and more particularly to intercept, monitor and electronically record data relating to communications events associated with target data or numbers on intercepted communication networks. A target number may be a telephone number, internet protocol (IP) address, URL etc. There is also a growing need for commercial communications recording systems in communications carrier networks and by service providers.
Media gateways are also well known and in general serve the purpose of converting or translating data carried according to a first protocol in a first network to a second different protocol, typically to be transmitted in a second network according to the second protocol.
One presently known gateway is one configured to receive time division multiplexed (TDM) channels in a data carrier type, such as the known E1, T1 and J1 carrier types or higher order carrier types in the relevant hierarchies, and to de-multiplex beyond the carrier type level to channel level, thereby to make selected channel data available on a local area network (LAN) to a host device, such as a VoIP telephone device connected to the LAN.
Such a gateway is not suitable in recording systems of the aforementioned kind, wherein large amounts of communications related data are required to be processed.